A student searching for ants in South Africa’s Little Karoo uncovered a velvet worm that scientists later described as a new species: Peripatopsis barnardi. The animal was found in 2022 and formally named in a 2025 scientific paper. The “living fossil” label refers to the ancient velvet-worm lineage—not to this newly described species being 500 million years old or unchanged since then.
What did the student find?
In March 2022, Stellenbosch University student Rohan Barnard found a slate-black velvet worm beneath rocks and in soil and leaf litter beside a stream. The species was later named Peripatopsis barnardi, in recognition of Barnard. Its formal description appeared on 20 April 2025 in Ecology and Evolution, in a paper describing seven new species in the genus Peripatopsis. The taxonomic paper identifies the first specimen, or holotype, as collected by R. Barnard on 6 March 2022.
Barnard was looking for ants during a visit to his aunt’s farm. He later recalled lifting rocks and searching in sand and leaf litter near a stream, in a landscape he described as semi-arid and not typical velvet-worm habitat. The paper places the collection site near the Hotnots River. Stellenbosch University’s account of the discovery quotes Barnard: “I had a basic knowledge of the Cape velvet worms, having found one for the first time on Table Mountain in 2019.” At the time, he was a third-year BSc student in Conservation Ecology and Entomology.
Where was Peripatopsis barnardi found?
The recorded locality is in the Groot Swartberg Mountains, between Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape’s Little Karoo. The holotype was collected at 813 metres above sea level. The animal occupied a damp, sheltered microhabitat: soil under smooth river rocks or boulders and deep leaf litter near a stream.
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The authors characterize P. barnardi as a narrow endemic, likely occurring in isolated Afrotemperate forest patches on the mountains’ southern slopes. That is a description of its known and suspected habitat, not a complete range map. The paper says more sampling is needed to establish its distribution and that other populations may occur in nearby gorges.
How was the discovery documented?
Barnard posted an image of the animal to iNaturalist. The formal paper says records on iNaturalist informed specimen collection in the Groot Swartberg Mountains and identifies Barnard as the collector and poster of the first record. The observation helped connect a field find with the researchers’ subsequent work; the paper’s formal description and specimen data establish the species scientifically. The iNaturalist taxon page lists the species and its current global IUCN Red List status as “not evaluated (NE).”
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Why is it called a “living fossil”?
Velvet worms belong to Onychophora, an animal lineage that Stellenbosch University describes as dating back over 500 million years. That figure applies to the lineage, not to P. barnardi as an individual species. The species was formally described in 2025; the paper identifies it as distinct through taxonomic description and reported molecular data, including COI and 18S rRNA sequences. Neither the name nor the lineage’s deep history demonstrates that this species has remained unchanged since the Cambrian.
“Living fossil” is therefore a shorthand for the group’s ancient evolutionary history. It should not be read as an age claim for this particular velvet worm or proof of evolutionary stasis.
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What is known about the animal?
The paper describes the holotype as slate-black on its back, with a prominent black line down the middle and a light-brown underside. It reports 17–18 pairs of legs. Those details describe the specimen and the taxonomic account; they are not a population estimate or a measure of how common the species is.
The iNaturalist page’s “not evaluated” label means that a global IUCN Red List assessment is not listed there. It does not establish whether the species is safe or threatened. The sources do not provide a named, published population estimate.
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